Omni is a cross-platform DSL (Domain Specific Language) for low level audio programming. It aims to be a new, expressive and easy to use programming language to code audio algorithms in.
Omni leverages on nim and C to compile self-contained static or shared libraries that can then be loaded and used anywhere. So far, two wrappers have already been written to compile omni code to SuperCollider UGens (omnicollider), or Max 8 objects (omnimax).
Also, a basic syntax highlighting VSCode plugin is available by simply looking for omni in the Extensions Marketplace.
The omni CLI
Once you’ve installed omni, the omni executable will be placed in your ~/.nimble/bin folder.
The omni executable has one positional argument: the .omni or .oi file to compile. The argument can also be a list of multiple omni files, or a directory. In this latter case, all .omni or .oi files in the directory will be compiled.
Run omni -h to get help on all the available flags.
Usage:
omni [optional-params] [files: string...]
Options:
-h, --help print this cligen-erated help
--help-syntax advanced: prepend,plurals,..
-n=, --outName= string "" Name for the output library. Defaults to the name of the input file(s) with "lib" prepended (e.g.
"OmniSaw.omni" -> "libOmniSaw.so"). This flag doesn't work for multiple files or directories.
-o=, --outDir= string "" Output folder. Defaults to the one in of the omni file(s).
-l=, --lib= string "shared" Build a shared or static library.
-a=, --architecture= string "native" Build architecture.
-c=, --compiler= string "gcc" Specify a different C backend compiler to use. Omni supports all of nim's C supported compilers.
-d=, --define= strings {} Define additional symbols for the intermediate nim compiler.
-i=, --importModule= strings {} Import additional nim modules to be compiled with the omni file(s).
-b=, --performBits= string "32/64" Specify precision for ins and outs in the init and perform blocks. Accepted values are "32", "64" or "32/64".
-e, --exportHeader bool true Export the "omni.h" header file together with the compiled lib.
When running the omni compiler, the output is either a static or shared library (depending on the --lib flag). Along with it, an omni.h file (depending on the --exportHeader flag) containing all the callable functions in the shared/static library will be exported.